Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and the Chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), J. Satyanarayana, on Tuesday informed a parliamentary panel headed by Congress leader P. Chidambaram that there will be no change in mandate of Aadhaar till the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court adjudicates on the matter.
In an unusually long meeting of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs, many pointed questions were put to Mr. Gauba and Mr. Satyanaryana on the relevance of Aadhaar in view of the recent Supreme Court judgment on privacy.
The government representatives argued that Aadhaar remains outside the purview of the August 24 judgment and it is valid since a separate Constitution Bench is yet to adjudicate on the issue. The case is expected to come up for hearing in November.
Interestingly, Mr. Chidambaram was Home Minister when the UPA government introduced Aadhaar. At the time, the Home Ministry was at loggerheads with the UIDAI, which was headed by Nandan Nilekani, on similar issues of privacy.
NPR work
The Home Ministry was collating data for the National Population Register (NPR), a fully government- controlled system where each Indian citizen was to be registered.
Mr. Chidamabaram had in March this year too raised questions about data protection in Aadhaar. In Tuesday’s meeting too, according to sources, he raised similar objections.
